TO my Grandkids….

I don’t know where I found it, but looking through old photos I came across this. For some reason it obviously impressed me.

I can’t imagine that it was when my first grandson was born about 30 years ago. And I have ten of them at any rate. I love my six grand daughters as much so it maybe should be titled ‘GRANDCHILDREN’. and I have 2 7/9 great grandchildren so I’ll include them in my thinking.

I got to think about it line by line today in the light of my eighty plus years of life experience. I’ve alredy added to the first but let me go on.

A nice thought but honestly I don’t believe it. Surely I believe that even if suffering from some physical, emotional or mental problem then you can still achieve a huge amount. If it ever occurred can you cure yourself of a stage four cancer when it is discovered late, I doubt it, maybe modern medicine or God may do so . If someone’s IQ is about 100 do I believe that, just by wishing it, they can become a professor of astrophysics. I doubt it, even if they are some type of appropriate idiot savant. Nevertheless they will be capable of a lot if they really put their mind to it. And I seek to remind you that a thorough cleaner is as important to a successful operation as a good surgeon. And if the anaesthetist makes a big mistake maybe the patient will die. I had a friend visit me in Ethiopia who queried how many geniuses there were laying on the grass watching a few cattle. It would be hard to imagine how they would travel to the moon!

Well I must say that you can lose. You should learn from failures surely, and it is much better to do so than to wallow in your losses. But you can lose – a marriage partner may die young or a child be taken by disease or an accident. That will be a shattering loss. Or maybe you will lose a parent early. Even at my old age if/ when my wife dies, if she dies before me, it will be a shattering loss.

Obviously this is a metaphor stressing the need to aim whole heartedly at what you want. A phase with lots of positivity about it. But I don’t want you to aim at being a successful con man or bank robber or abortionist. But there is a wide range of things with which if you desire I offer you my very best wishes. And it does say aim at the skies, I certainly would encourage you to think hard about sky (eternal) issues.

The loving under all circumstances may prove hard at time, but promising to love you is sincere. True love doesn’t stop you from being upset or even speaking your mind, but love can persist through those things. I hope that I could even love you if you declare that you hate me. Certainly I hope to die before you do, but I can’t even promise you that.

Which makes me wonder how much time do I have left here on earth to love you. And to wonder may it be possible for me to love you from the ‘skies’? I have a certain HOPE that it will be a possibility.

Dominic Cartier, your grandfather.